As the five candidates running for the office of mayor come up on less than two weeks of campaigning before the Nov. 8 election — with signs and banners for different candidates lining major thoroughfares around town — the race for more campaign monies is on as well.

In the first filings released in the election on Sept. 29 and subsequent filings by candidates, the contending campaigns revealed initial contributions from individuals and organizations alike, as well as campaign expenses.

As of next month, Mayor Jose Esteves will have served out his third consecutive term as mayor, and he must wait two years before he can run again. Vice Mayor Carmen Montano and Councilwoman Debbie Indihar Giordano, whose four-year terms end in November have thrown their hats into the ring for a chance to serve as mayor for the next two years.

Also in the running are Robert Marini, a retired electrical engineer, Voltaire Montemayor, a retired geologist and Richard Tran, a medical social worker for Santa Clara County.

Montano, Indihar Giordano, Montemayor and Tran all filed campaign disclosure documents, Marini has not. According to the City Clerk Mary Lavelle, if a candidate starts to raise money for a respective campaign, and collects or spends more than $2,000, he or she must open a campaign committee by filing Fair Political Practices Commission Form 410.

Debbie Indihar Giordano
To date, Indihar Giordano has raised $40,246, of which she loaned herself $27,850, with the remaining $12,396 coming from contributions from residents, developers and corporations.

Indihar Giordano’s campaign received $250 from San Jose-based Barry Swenson Builder, whose 1256 Piper Drive residential development came before the planning commission in March of this year, with an additional $250 being donated by San Jose-based Swenson Development & Construction. She also received donations of $250 from Stephen E. Schott, vice president of SCS Development, whose developments, Citation I and Citation II, are at 1200 Piper Drive and 765 Montague Expressway respectively; $250 from SCS Development Company; and another $250 from Citations Home Central.

Moreover, Indihar Giordano has spent $27,699 on various election related costs including consultants and signage.

Carmen Montano
To date, Montano has raised $13,750, $3,600 of which she donated to herself, and the rest coming from political action committees, other elected officials and community members.

Montano’s campaign received $250 from the National Association of Letter Carrier’s political action committee; $250 from the Builders Jobs political action committee; and $250 from fellow Councilmember Garry Barbadillo; and $250 from Santa Clara Valley Water District Director Richard Santos.

Montano spent $10,934 on various election related expenses including supplies for her kickoff party and campaign literature.

Voltaire Montemayor
Montemayor has to date raised $4,565, of which he loaned himself $3,000 and the rest are donations from supporters. Montemayor’s campaign received $200 from John and Blanchy Mackay, according to his filing.

The details of the remaining $1,365 were not included in Montemayor’s Sept. 29 filing.

On Wednesday, Lavelle said that Montemayor’s filing was incomplete. However, she said that “he says he has lots of cash donations under $100, and if it’s less than $100 like cash, then those do not have to be itemized.”

Richard Tran
Tran said on Oct. 21 that he has raised $32,000 to date. According to the Sept. 29 filing, Tran had raised $19,814, of which $11,500 were loans, while $8,314 was contributed by campaign donors.

Tran’s campaign has received $250 from Joshua Barousse, a legislative aide in the city of San Jose; $200 from Luke Nguyen, an oil analyst with Sinopec Corp.; $200 from Shawn Lepisi, a manger at Second Harvest Food Bank; and $250 from Tuong Nguyen, an engineer with Sigma Designs.

According to his filing, Tran spent $11,424 on data analysis and campaign literature among other things. According to Tran on Oct. 21, that number had risen to $30,000.

The second pre-election campaign filings were due on Oct. 27 to the city, but were not available by press time.

Aliyah Mohammed covers local government, education, breaking news and community issues in Milpitas and Fremont. She is also the web and social media coordinator for the Milpitas Post and Fremont Argus. Aliyah has been working for Bay Area News Group since 2013. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a double bachelors in English and media studies in 2013. Aliyah loves coffee, traveling, soccer and being a devoted bibliophile.

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